softening influence of chivalric education (R. 80). There were many
evidences, too, by the end of the eleventh century, that the western
Christian world, after the long intellectual night, was soon to awaken to
a new intellectual life. The twelfth century, in particular, was a period
when it was evident that some new leaven was at work.

Up to about the close of the eleventh century western Europe had been
living in an age of simple faith. The Christian world everywhere lay under
"a veil of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession." The mysteries of
Christianity and the many inconsistencies of its teachings and beliefs
were accepted with childlike docility, and the Church had felt little call
to organize, to systematize, or to explain. Here and there, to be sure,
some questioning monk or cleric had raised questions over matters [9] of
faith which his reason could not explain, and had, perhaps, for a time
disturbed the peace of orthodoxy, but a statement somewhat similar to that
made by Anselm of Canterbury (footnote, p. 173), as to the precedence of
faith over reason, had usually been sufficient to silence all inquiry.
Once, in the latter part of the eleventh century, when a great discussion
as to the nature of knowledge had taken place among the leaders of the
Church, a church council had been called to pass upon and give final
settlement to the questions raised. [10]

RISE OF THE SPIRIT OF INQUIRY. As the cathedral schools grew in importance
as teaching institutions, and came to have many teachers and students, a
few of them became noted as places where good instruction was imparted and
great teachers were to be found. Canterbury in England, Paris and Chartres
in France, and several of the cities in northern Italy early were noted
for the quality of their instruction. The great teachers and the keenest
students of the time were to be found in the cathedral schools in these
places, and the monastic schools now lost their earlier importance as